Recommended sleep for adults: Snooze for this long to slash risk of diabetes and obesity

RECOMMENDED sleep for adults: lack of sleep can have a detrimental effect on a person’s health, as well as their life expectancy. But what’s considered the correct amount of time to snooze for, and are you getting enough?

Sleep is important when it comes to a person's health. Regular sleepless nights can put you at risk of serious medical conditions, such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes, according to the NHS.

But how much sleep do we need, and what’s the recommended amount for adults?

How much sleep we need, depends on our age, say sleep experts.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, while newborns need 14 to 17 hours sleep, and teenagers need eight to ten hours sleep, different stages of an adult's life require different amounts of slumber.

A young adult aged between 18 and 25 should get seven to nine hours sleep a night.

Sleepless nights can be avoided if you ditch the curries, don’t drink alcohol at lunch and curb that evening gym session. Ten things to avoid if you want a good night’s sleep.

Recommended sleep for adults: Not enough slumber can have a detrimental effect on a person's health

With almost one in five people admitting they feel tired everyday due to a lack of sleep, sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley has shared the six things you should do in the 30 minutes before bed to help you re-establish a good sleep routine.

30 minutes

Use that last half hour to prepare for sleep and start by completing any final tasks for the day. Send that last email, pay that gas bill you’ve been meaning to pay all day and try and put aside any cares and concerns you have. Write down your worries and your to do list for tomorrow and then that’s it. Research conducted by Baylor University in Texas discovered that people who took 5 minutes to write down their to do lists before bed found it easier to drop off to sleep.

25 minutes

Reduce your exposure to blue light - blue light is known to suppress the release of melatonin, which is the body’s signal that it is time for sleep. Therefore, using screens before bed will disrupt sleep. Research shows that nearly 1 in 5 of us check social media before going to bed so try and put your phone, laptop or tablet down, and if you need to use your phone for your morning alarm then turn it over, or pop it in your bedside drawer to avoid being disturbed. However, it is not just blue light that can affect our sleep, it has been shown that even ‘paper white’ screens can also be disturbing, so avoid light levels above a normal lightbulb.

20 minutes

Do brush your teeth and remove your make-up well in advance of getting in to bed, so that you are not left feeling alert at the time you want to be relaxing into bed. This can also act as a cue that the body should be preparing itself for sleep.

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Recommended sleep for adults: An adult aged between 26 and 64 should get seven to nine hours a night

15 minutes

Take a 5-minute hot shower. Not only is this relaxing, but by heating the periphery of our body it actually helps us cool down. This is important because in order to get good sleep we need to lose about 1oC of body temperature. Only 12 per cent of people have a bath or a shower before they go to sleep so give it a go and see if it makes a difference.

Ten minutes

Conclude any activities you need to do before getting in to bed, such as visiting the bathroom so that you’re not having to get in and out of bed to run to the toilet. A staggering 42 per cent of people say they don’t get enough sleep because they need the toilet in the night so make this one of the last things you do before bed.

Five minutes

Bed means sleep and at the end of the 30 minutes it is time for bed – no more chatting to your partner or scrolling through Facebook! The bed should be for sleeping only and so when you get into it, it should be with the sole purpose of going to sleep and nothing else.

Dr Stanley added: “If you’re still struggling to settle down and get the sleep you need then you might find it beneficial to look at natural remedies to help you unwind before sleep.

“Lavender drops on the pillow, or a herbal sleep aid containing a blend of natural herbs such as valerian and passion flower, which have been traditionally used to help you unwind and aid sleep.”